Bill Gates bade farewell on Friday to Microsoft Corp., the software giant he built with childhood friend Paul Allen in 1975, to focus on philanthropy aimed at improving healthcare and alleviating poverty around the world.


"There won't be a day in my life that I'm not thinking about Microsoft and the great things that it's doing and wanting to help," the teary-eyed Gates told a farewell event at the company's headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

After decades devoted to Microsoft, the once world's richest man planned to turn full attention to the philanthropic Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest charity he funded with his wife in 1994.

The Gates couple, whose fortune was estimated at 58 billion dollars, mainly Microsoft stock, has pledged to donate almost all their fortune to the now 40-billion-dollar foundation.

As Microsoft's largest single shareholder, the 52-year-old Gates will remain non-executive chairman of the company and work on special technology projects.

BILL GATES BIOGRAPHY